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BILLION-DOLLAR BRAIN

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by Len Deighton (1966)

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Heralding the arrival of artificial intelligence decades before its appearance, the billion-dollar Brain is a super-computer owned and controlled by a private spy service based in the US. General Midwinter, the powerful and wealthy head of the mercenary organisation, Facts for Freedom (FFF), has his Brain take on the role of analyst and communications officer. Simply put, the Brain receives information from multiple operatives in the field, the information is then sifted and sorted as analysis is performed, and instructions are then issued to the operatives that remain in the field or are to be newly deployed. All communications are conducted through the landline telephone network, on both a national and international basis, with calls usually taking place at pre-arranged times. Currently, the FFF is running an unlawful operation within Latvia, a Soviet nation neighbouring Russia. To complicate matters, the FFF is also stealing viruses from Porton Down in the UK, and secretly transporting these dangerous entities across Europe. However, perhaps because the Brain is imperfect, the FFF has been gamed by the Soviets who have successfully posed as Americans (the CIA), so that the stolen technology (the viruses) is actually heading towards the Soviet Union rather than the United States. A single British man will now be required to sort this nonsense out and clean up this mess! An old-fashioned cold war thriller that moves slightly faster than a Le Carre novel. Fiction. 254 pages.

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DETAILS:

Title: Billion-dollar brain

Year: 1966

Author: Len Deighton

Pages: 254

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Book review by Keith Salter